Post #1- Coraline
This post is meant to focus on the Movie Coraline the movie based on the 2002 Neil Gaiman Novella was a first of its kind in the world of stop motion animation. The film combines classic stop motion with new edge 3-D, production for the film actually began 2 years before Gaiman published the book. According to On The Set production saw 28 plus animators turning out approximately 100 seconds of animation a week. The puppets used to create Coraline and her family are created similarly to those in Nightmare Before Christmas. A professional knitter was called in to make miniature clothing and multiple doll heads were produced in case of wear and tear. Here you can see what it takes to film the simplist scene in stop motion animation, the audio and visual and all the work of the animators.
Setting Coraline apart from other stop motion animations is that it is the first of its kind to be produced in and released in 3-D. To film in 3-D new digital camera technology is used allowing each shot to be filmed twice, one time for each eye. In the On The Set interview the director states, “The 3-D effect is kind of based on what’s the distance between your eyes,” says Selick. “Of course, Coraline’s eyes are much closer together because she’s much smaller, so we shoot a left eye and a right eye with the same camera. It travels very precisely in very small amounts.”
With hand crafted designs and 3d shots and effects what et this film apart most in the eyes of critics was the amount of visual effects and details. An entire garden that lights up being made by millions of little pieces of popcorn. ”What makes this film different,” says Tom Proost, one of the art directors, “is that everything is real and everything moves.” This quote and the photo stills of many of their hidden little secrets can be found here. Coraline has not only set 3-d animation forward into a new genre but it has revolutionized and raised the expectation for future stop motion films.
ETA: I have commented on Alberry, Wittel, Kush, Francis, and Finch
balberry said,
January 25, 2010 at 2:40 am
I would love to see Coraline after reading your blog and watching that clip. I had absolutely no clue how much work went into making that film. I had just assumed it was composed through a collection of drawings. I didn’t realize they actually made puppets and acted them out in stop motion animation. To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t really even heard of stop motion animation. Also, I love how they matched the mouths and facial expressions to their corresponding actors. This is why I know I will love this class. It really opens up your eyes.
Blog Post # 1: An Analysis of the Little Mermaid « Animation said,
January 25, 2010 at 8:09 pm
[...] responded to Jeannie Hilleary and Brenda Weber’s blog posts. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)The Little [...]
Samira Denardo said,
January 26, 2010 at 6:29 am
I definitely have to agree with balberry, your blog has made me curious about this movie. I remember when it came out; I didn’t think much of it assuming it was going to be like any other computer generated movie: “not big deal, I’ve seen it before” type of thing, not knowing how intricate and unique this production really was. I love how “everything moves” and the immaculate detail of the shots in order for the scenes to look very real. By the way, I didn’t really get the whole thing about filming the same shot twice, one for each eye… sounds quite laborious! I think it’s quite funny when the Lead Animator says that the hardest shots are the ones where there’s no dialog in because that means the animators will have to create, by themselves, the emotions and expressions of the puppets and can be really difficult in animation. I honestly did not know there was so much man work and talent invested in this movie; it makes it more appealing for movie aficionados, and animation-illiterates (such as myself) will definitely appreciate this “hand made” production which has set the record for the coming stop motion films.
Cheers!
Sami
Cory said,
January 27, 2010 at 5:49 pm
I remember thinking the same things the first time I saw Coraline. I saw it on Blu-Ray, so every single pixel was visible, and the animation still went together with an amazing fluidity. The characters were exaggerated in the right ways, and subtle in others, which combined to make a great entertaining family dynamic. The sets seem real, and I had a hard time believing that this was stop motion the first time i saw it. In an industry straying from the hand-drawn and claymation films, for the most part, its nice to see a work of art this pristine and off-kilter from a writer as fantastic albeit weird as Neil Gaiman come through mainstream cinema.